AFTER THE Department of National Defense terminated its agreement with the University of the Philippines, some students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines expressed alarm over the possible scrapping of a similar accord between PUP and the government.

Like UP’s agreement, PUP’s own Prudente-Ramos accord also bars the entry of uniformed personnel in PUP campuses.

PUP students found the termination of the UP-DND accord a dangerous precedent, which they said is another effort of the administration to silence dissent.

“The unilateral termination of the 1989 UP-DND accord sets forth a dangerous precedent to PUP’s very own 1990 Prudente-Ramos accord, which was built on the same premise of the military and police being unwelcome inside university premises,” Ludwig Bables, a student from PUP, said.

“This should strengthen the fact that this is not just solely a ‘UP issue’ but rather the entire nation’s struggle against state forces who do nothing but silence criticism. Apparently, to this government, suppression of dissent is more important than addressing the virus. #DefendUP #ResistTyranny,” he added.

The UP community held a protest action on Tuesday to show their opposition to the DND’s decision to terminate its agreement with the university.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the move was made to ensure that students would not fall prey to the recruitment activities of the Communist Party of the Philippines or the New People’s Army.

“The country’s premier state university has become a safe haven for enemies of the state,” Lorenzana said.